The force is strong with this DIY Star Wars trailer! Take a ride on a millennium falcon made of cardboard, because you don’t need CGI to visit a galaxy far, far away, just imagination! Join the Homemade Movies crew for their last episode, on the appropriately titled, “The Last Jedi”! The last episode? WHY? Have […] The post Amazing “Homemade” Recreation of t […]

Finnish artist JP Ahonen has created a series of comics featuring a black metal family that are quite the opposite of dark. They’re funny and quite delightful to read. Here are a few of our favorites. [Source: Belzebubs Comics] The post These Black Metal Comics Are Hilariously Dark [Comics] appeared first on Geeks are Sexy Technology News.

Farewell Peter Capaldi, and thanks for everything you bought to Doctor Who. We will miss you! [Doctor Puppet] The post Thanks For The Stars: A Farewell Tribute to Peter Capaldi’s 12th Doctor [Video] appeared first on Geeks are Sexy Technology News.

In this comic, @JHallComics from Dorkly illustrates 6 winter ativities that are perfect for people that are extremely introverted. Check it out: [Source: Dorkly] The post Dorkly Comic: 6 Winter Activities For Introverts appeared first on Geeks are Sexy Technology News.

From the studio that took everything fun about the Star Wars franchise and turned them into microtransactions, this is Star Wars Battlefront II! [Smosh Games] The post STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT 2: The Honest Trailer appeared first on Geeks are Sexy Technology News.

The stiff upper-lipped Empire routinely manages to snatch defeat from incrementally more gaping jaws of victory. [Adult Swim] The post Robot Chicken: The Worst of The Empire (Star Wars) appeared first on Geeks are Sexy Technology News.

Thinkgeek is currently holding a HUGE sale on its “Shirts of Random Awesomeness,” where they’re offering 1 completely random geeky tee for just $0.99 or 3 for $2.49! You may not be able to choose, but at those prices how can you go wrong?! You can also use the code TREBUCHET to get FREE Game […] The post INSANE Deal: $0.99 Geeky T-Shirts, 3 Tees for $2.49 ap […]

Did We Not Learn From Star Trek 4? No Whales…Bad News.

Before delving into the whale/navy debate article, why are I making this a scifi entry on my blog. The premise of Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home is: “To save Earth from an alien probe, Kirk and his crew go back in time to retrieve the only beings who can communicate with it, humpback whales.” Oops, spoiler alert. In all honesty, while the story had fantastical elements, the theme of protecting whales from extinction and yet, it still has relevance to the issue at hand.

From an earlier blog entry, Hayden Panettierrefrom Heroes worked on a cause to save whales and dolphins from Japanese fishing boats. Now, if the Navy is doing untold damages using SONAR during their training exercises combine with the killing of these animals from the Japanese, we may very well may see a world without those creatures that have done no harm to us. I support the right of the military to protect us but not at the cost of marine life. This is not to say that life will imitate art in the distant future where an alien probe will destroy the world if it can’t make contacts with humpback whales but why tempt fate? Why start a chain reaction of events that could, in the end, affect us all?

How much evidence do we need to gather to see what is being done is wrong?

The case, which pits military against environmental interests, arose because the Navy skipped the usual environmental impact statement for anti-submarine exercises planned from February 2007 to January 2009.

After the Natural Resources Defense Council sued, a district court judge in Los Angeles restricted the Navy’s use of the mid-frequency active sonar, saying it would lead to a “near certainty” of irreparable harm to marine life. A U.S. appeals court affirmed but eased the restrictions on the location and timing of sonar exercises for the strike groups being deployed overseas.

The case tests the latitude for judges reviewing whether military exercises meet the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act and the ability of an administration to resist a judge’s order.

President Bush has asserted that the Navy should be able to undertake sonar exercises without the usual environmental-rules compliance.

Justices’ comments during the vigorous hour of arguments suggested they might be narrowly divided. Chief Justice John Roberts and other conservatives appeared poised to secure a majority to find that U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper failed to account for the urgency of the Navy’s exercises.

U.S. Solicitor General Gregory Garre said “the ability to locate and track an enemy submarine” is “critical to the nation’s own security.” Garre said Cooper’s declaration about harm to mammals is “utterly belied by” a preliminary environmental assessment and by naval sonar exercises conducted there for more than 40 years.

Garre said any injuries to dolphins or whales would be temporary, for example to their feeding or breeding patterns. He added that Judge Cooper discounted “vital public interests.”

Richard Kendall of the Natural Resources Defense Council said “beaked whales have (been) stranded repeatedly around the world” by sonar.

Sonar works as vessels emit a loud noise underwater and listen for whether the noise bounces back off a submarine. Kendall likened the sound for marine mammals to that a jet engine would make in the courtroom “multiplied … by 2,000 times.”

Several justices focused on whether Judge Cooper had fully weighed the Navy’s interests.

Chief Justice Roberts said Cooper apparently failed to assess, for example, how harm to mammals might be offset by the Navy’s effort to ensure a North Korean submarine could not approach Pearl Harbor undetected.

Yet Justice Stevens questioned how the Navy could know the extent of potential harm. “The very fact that you need an (environmental impact statement) is because you don’t know what environmental consequences may ensue,” Stevens said.

“I regret to announce that — though, as I said, 12 years and 10 months is far too short a time to spend among you — this is the END! I am going. I am leaving NOW! GOODBYE!” [Slips ring on] – Bilbo Baggins, The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (paraphrased) When we started SF Signal in 2003, it was because we loved speculative fiction. Having a blog a […]

Helen Lowe, is a novelist, poet, interviewer and blogger whose first novel, Thornspell (Knopf), was published to critical praise in 2008. Her second, The Heir of Night (The Wall Of Night Series, Book One) won the Gemmell Morningstar Award 2012. The sequel, The Gathering Of The Lost, was shortlisted for the Gemmell Legend Award in 2013 and Daughter Of Blood, […]

REVIEW SUMMARY: With a strong cast and genuine sense of fun, the latest entry in Marvel Studios’s superhero story engages and entertains, even if it never offers its audience anything new. MY RATING: BRIEF SYNOPSIS: When an operation in Lagos results in the deaths of civilians, Iron Man and Captain America must decide their place in a world that has become i […]

Ada Palmer is a professor in the history department of the University of Chicago, specializing in Renaissance history and the history of ideas. Her first nonfiction book, Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance, was published in 2014 by Harvard University Press. She is also a composer of folk and Renaissance-tinged a capella music, most of which she performs wi […]

Who’s got time to go through all the monthly SF/F releases and pick the cream of the crop? I do! This week for the Kirkus Reviews blog, I look at The Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Books You’ll Want to Read in May. Check it out, won’t you?

Favorite Weapons: Be it Excalibur or the Point of View Gun, Stormbringer or the BFG, weapons in Fantasy and Science Fiction often have a personality and charm all their own, and sometimes are even characters in their own right. Q: What are your favorite weapon, or weapons, in fantasy and science fiction. Here are a couple of additional late correspondents fr […]

In case you missed them, here are The Top SF Signal Posts for April 2016 (excluding the daily link posts and housekeeping posts): See the Ancient Horror of the Lovecraftian Short Film “The Mountains of Madness” How Well-Read Are You in Science Fiction? Here’s a Cover Gallery of the Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Books Out in April 200+ SF/F/H eBooks for […]

Which superhero movie and TV show made the chart of top Google trends in 2017? Which comic book movie was entered into the National Film Registry this year? Is Colton Haynes returning to Arrow as Arsenal this season? Who is Krys Marshall playing in this season of Supergirl? Could Spider-Gwen make her live-action debut on […] The post Superhero Bits: Infinity […]

On the December 13, 2017 episode of /Film Daily, Peter Sciretta is joined by /Film writers Chris Evangelista and Hoai-Tran Bui to discuss the latest news, including Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, our reaction to the Annihilation trailer, Rian Johnson tells us the story of how Disney agreed to his new Star Wars trilogy, American […] The post Daily Podc […]

Woody Woodpecker, the cartoon bird who laughs a lot, went and got himself a feature-length film, and now the trailer has arrived to make us all question our very existence. This live-action comedy has Woody making life a living hell for human beings everywhere, like the mischievous elf Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Also, there are […] The post Look Up […]

Guillermo del Toro may have recently made a film about a god of the seas, but the Mexican-American director is the king of unfinished projects. The Shape of Water director has announced that he will be helming a new project, a remake of the 1947 noir Nightmare Alley. But to add more to his ever-growing slate, del […] The post ‘Nightmare Alley’ Remake Coming […]

Ed Helms hasn’t quite been able to parlay his success on The Office onto the big screen, but perhaps his new film The Clapper will change that. The quirky romantic comedy has Helms playing a professional infomercial audience member who finds himself smitten with a gas station attendant played by Amanda Seyfried. Their romance is challenged, however, when […] […]

In this edition of Star Wars bits: The cast of The Last Jedi answers the Internet’s burning questions Rian Johnson talks (a lot) about The Last Jedi Kelly Marie Tran loses her cool, wins our hearts A new TV spot for The Last Jedi Mads Mikkelsen wants more Galen Erso And much more! RollingStone offered some insights about the making […] The post Star Wars Bit […]

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is set to open at Walt Disney World and Disneyland in 2019, taking visitors to a remote outpost on a planet called Batuu. When it opens, one of the main attractions will be a Millennium Falcon flight simulator. We learned some details about the experience during this year’s D23 expo back in July, but […] The post First Look at Disney […]

Devindra and Jeff team up with Kristy Puchko to figure out The Shape of Water. Also, they discuss Netflix’s Voyeur and Godless, and Jeff discovers the wonders of Toast of London. You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Also, like us on Facebook! Download or Play Now in your Browser: SHOWNOTES […]

Every week in /Answers, we attempt to answer a new pop culture-related question. In this week’s edition, we’re celebrating the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi by fondly recalling our favorite Star Wars movie moments, the individual beats or reveals or lines of dialogue that stand out above all else for us. Lindsey Romain: Leia Senses […] The post /Answer […]

Artist Ralph McQuarrie is arguably as responsible for the look of Star Wars as George Lucas himself. McQuarrie’s original designs and concept art shaped not only Lucas’s original movie, but multiple films and TV projects throughout the franchise’s storied history. McQuarrie passed away in 2012, but his influence on the world of science fiction will live […] […]